Tommy's 7th birthday

Oma and Pappou were excited they could come back to Hong Kong after their trip to China to help celebrate Tommy's 7th birthday.  Tommy started the day with breakfast in bed.  He gets out of school an hour early on Wednesdays.  He had enough time to go swimming with Tom before dinner.  Tommy requested Pizza Hut for dinner.  I also made a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.
After dinner he opened his presents, he got many nice gifts.  Overall, he had a great day!

Pappou and Oma were happy to help celebrate Tommy's birthday

So many presents!

Tommy with his 3D puzzle of Burj Khalifa.  It is taller than he.

Oma and Pappou visit!

When we got back from Japan, we had something to look forward to right away.  Oma and Pappou were coming to visit.  We were excited.  We had a whole itinerary planned with many fun activities.  We had to take them to all of our favorite places as well as try a few new ones.

Pappou, Tommy, Charlotte and Oma at Disneyland

Grizzly Gulch in Disneyland has a St. Louis sign

Big Buddha

 One of the new things we did was go to Lamma Island.  We took a ferry boat.  Then we ate a good meal with fresh seafood.  The restaurant had tanks of fish out front to show you exactly what you were eating.  Then we took a short hike to a nearby beach.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand.  It was a great day.

Our seafood meal included a whole fish, eyes and all

Fun playing in the sand

Oma and Pappou left for a trip to China, but they were coming back for a few more days after their trip.

Back home!

It was time to fly back to Hong Kong from Tokyo.  Our flight didn't leave Tokyo until 6 PM, but with wanting to be at the airport early and having a several hour trip from Kyoto to the airport, we decided not to try to do any sightseeing on our way home.  Instead, we had a leisurely day, without being stressed about getting to the airport on time.  We spent some time getting snacks to eat on the train.  We got sandwiches from a bakery.  I also really wanted to get a Bento box.  Bento boxes are the iconic meal for a Japanese train.  They have many different varieties.  Many contain sushi or rice, veggies, and curry.  I bought one with sashimi and rice.

Charlotte eating her sandwich on the train

Bento box

We got to the airport in plenty of time.  Tom had a pass for the JAL club.  He could take a guest so he took Tommy in with him.  Tommy got a soda to drink and a snack.  He thought he was pretty important.  While the guys were in the club, Charlotte and I had fun spending the last few Yen we had on Japanese snacks.

Tommy at the JAL Club

Ready to go home

 We got on the plane,a few minutes later than scheduled.  They we sat at the gate for almost an hour until we were ready for takeoff.  Charlotte was worn out from the trip and was asleep before the plane left.  After takeoff, they started serving dinner.  Again, they brought the kids' meals before they started general food service.  Charlotte woke up after a little while later so she could eat her food and watch Frozen for the 27th (million) time.

Kid's meal

With our delay, it was after midnight before we got home from the airport.  We were all exhausted, but it had been a great trip.

Kyoto- Umekoji Locomotive Museum

Kyoto is a beautiful, historic city with 17 world heritage sites.  We decided not to visit any of them. We only had 1 day to explore in Kyoto and wanted to do some fun things the kids would enjoy.  We have visited a lot of temples and monuments in Asia (including several in Japan already) and they aren't at the top of the kids' list.
In the morning, we visited the Umekoji Locomotive Museum.  It had a real steam engine you can ride and lots of trains to climb in and examine.  On the way to the museum, we learned the Kyoto train line has local trains and rapid trains.  Local trains stop at every train station and rapid trains only stop at the major stops.  We were supposed to go one stop on the train, but ended up on the rapid train instead and it took us past our stop and we had to go back on the next local train the other direction.  Luckily, our train pass allowed us unlimited train rides.  

Umekoji museum, an old station house

Several of the museums/attractions had displays for pictures that included that day's date

On the steam train

Watching the trains

The steam train chugging through the cherry blossoms

All aboard

There wasn't a restaurant at the museum, but they did have a vending machine with microwave meals.  You put in your money and made your selection and it took the frozen meal and cooked it for 1-3 minutes before it appeared in the slot down below.  They had french fries, rice and sauce, chicken nuggets, and meatballs.  It was interesting.  We tried a few things and they were okay.

After the train museum, we took the train to Arashiyama, a beautiful part of Kyoto.  We wanted to visit the Iwatayama Monkey Park.  From the train station, it was about a 15 minute walk through town.  We passed the Tenryu-ji Temple on the way as well as numerous souvenir shops and restaurants.  Once you enter the Monkey Park, there is a long hike to get to the top of the hill to see the monkeys.  

Beautiful scenery on the way up

 There are signs all over the park warning you the monkeys are wild and telling you how to act with them.  You aren't supposed to look directly at the monkey, take pictures of the monkeys, or eat any food while in the park.  All the warnings make you think the monkeys could be dangerous or aggressive, but we had a good experience.  There were several workers at the top keeping a close eye on the monkeys (and visitors) to make sure there weren't any problems.  The monkeys casually walked around all the people.  They clearly were used to people and were not scared.  The hill was pretty high up and had a great view of the town below.

Monkeys at the top

Charlotte with a monkey hanging out nearby

panoramic view of Kyoto

 If you wanted to feed the monkeys, you could buy a bag of feed (either apples or peanuts) and feed them from inside a room with wiring on the windows.  The room was probably 20 feet by 50 feet.  It was interesting having the humans inside the "cage" feeding the monkeys, while the monkeys roamed free.

Charlotte feeding the monkeys

 When we were done feeding the monkeys, there was a fun playground for the kids.  There was a long slide and zip line the kids did over and over.  We walked back through town, did a little souvenir shopping then took the train back to our hotel and got some dinner.  It was a long, fun day and a great way to end our vacation.

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Odawara Castle/Kyoto

We decided to go see the Odawara Castle before catching the bullet train to Kyoto.  We wanted to see a castle at some point and, logistically, this one made the most sense.  Charlotte was very excited to "see a real castle where the Disney princesses used to live".  We took the train from Gora to Odawara and left our suitcases in a locker at the train station.  It was a short walk from the train station to the castle.

Ready to leave Gora Station

Beautiful cherry blossoms surrounding the bridge to Odawara Castle

 

Charlotte, Jenneke and Tommy on the bridge

The castle was built in the 1400s for the Omori Family.  It was destroyed in 1703 by an earthquake.  It was rebuilt again and then, in 1870, the castle was taken down and the pieces were sold.  A second earthquake in 1923 destroyed the remaining walls.  The castle was restored in 1960 as a museum.  The restored castle was built without any interior walls, so you didn't get a good feel for how they actually lived in the castle, but the artifacts in the museum were interesting.  The grounds of the castle were beautiful.  You had to pay an admission to get into the castle, but could walk around the grounds for free.  There were hundreds of people eating, playing, and relaxing around the property.  It was a Wednesday, but there was a market on the grounds with around 20 stalls selling food and handicrafts.  We had a great time.

For some reason there was a small cage with some monkeys near the castle.
We learned later this is the only variety of monkey found in Japan.

Charlotte and Tommy on the castle wall

Odawara Castle

The walls had seven layers to make them extremely strong.  This picture shows the different layers.  

Huge doors protecting the castle.  You had to go through several sets of these to get on the castle grounds.

Tom, Charlotte, and Tommy from the castle balcony

Street market on the castle grounds

Charlotte with a giant sweet potato stick-yummy!

Then we took the bullet train to Kyoto.  I was glad we opted to visit the castle in Odawara instead of waiting to see one in Kyoto, because it was raining when we got to Kyoto.  Our hotel was very close to the train station.  It was the smallest room we stayed in in Japan.  It was considered a deluxe studio.  It would have been roomy for 1 person for a short stay, but was crammed with 4.  There was a bed in one corner for Tom and I.  The kids slept on a futon mattress in the adjacent living area.  There was just enough room to get by their bed to get to the bathroom.  We had a VERY small kitchen, The bathroom was interesting.  We had one room for the toilet, one room for the shower, and the sink was in the hallway.  It was nice to be able to use all of them at once if we needed.  However, the sink was across from the kitchen and there was a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and the living room.  Therefore, we had to worry about the noise and light from the sink area bothering the kids once they were in bed.  

Our bed

The mattress just fit on the floor next to the couch.  (The couch also pulled out into a bed, but it completely blocked the doorway and  wouldn't have been practical)

kitchen

Shower room

Toilet room

Sink with front door on the right